Program at Anthracite Heritage Museum to focus on Eastern
European immigrants

SCRANTON, Pa. - Anthracite Region native James Stevens will present a
program at the Anthracite Heritage Museum, in McDade Park, on Sunday, May
7, on "Contract Labor and Eastern European Immigrants."

Labor contracts attracted thousands of industrious Slavic workmen to
the Anthracite coal fields only to find themselves economically exploited
as cheap labor and socially excluded as "foreigners." Mr. Stevens'
talk on their plight will be illustrated.

Mr. Stevens will be available after the presentation to autograph his
novel "Coal Cracker Blues," which features flashbacks to the author's
high school days in Shamokin in the 1950s. Copies will be available for
purchase in the museum store.

The Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum is located in McDade Park,
off Keyser Avenue, in Scranton (Exits 182 or 191-B off I-81, and Exit 122,
Keyser Avenue, from I-476). The museum and iron furnaces are open year-round
Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.

Admission is charged for the museum's main exhibit, "Anthracite
People: Immigration and Ethnicity in Pennsylvania's Hard Coal Region."
Admission to a temporary exhibit, "The Great Anthracite Coal Strike
of 1902," is included.